Bellairsia

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Where's There: Tilton's Tower

Labels: 20 century - 1940s, places - us - massachusetts, things

(The second in a series about places or things John Bellairs didn't write about in towns where he lived.)

When John Bellairs began a story in the early 1980s that would go on to become 1983’s The Curse of the Blue Figurine he made yet another shift in geographic location. Three books, three different states: his native Michigan in The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (1976); southeast Minnesota for The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (1978); and now New England, specifically northeast Massachusetts. While the location may have changed, there was still something sinister afoot and a kind of magic to be harvested.

Renowned Be Thy Grave

Labels: fandom, places - us - massachusetts

Author/blogger J.W. Ocker wrote The New England Grimpendium (2010) and The New York Grimpendium (2012), each a travelogue of his experiences exploring macabre sites, attractions, and artifacts in those regions. His blog features odd things he's seen and this week he showcased something he found in Haverhill:

Where's There: Wilder Creek Castle

Labels: figure in the shadows, house with a clock in its walls, places - us - michigan, things

After years of reading about the places where John Bellairs lived and wrote about, we decided that for this round of Where’s There that we would investigate some of the locations in the towns where John lived but that he didn’t write about.

Make sense?

What's What: SPQR

Labels: dolphin cross, things

Fleeing from The Bishop, Prospero finds traces of Roman influence in the stonework of the castle in the form of this abbreviation [The Dolphin Cross; Magic Mirrors; 226].

Interview: Nate Pedersen

Labels: fans - interview

When we contact people out of the blue for interviews you never know their response: “yes, I’d love to answer a few questions” verses “yeah, maybe” and then we never hear from ‘em again. Not so with Nate. Nate Pedersen is a Community Librarian with the Deschutes Public Library in Bend, Oregon. Besides being on the board of directors for the Deschutes County Historical Society and Museum he also works as a freelance journalist, with publications in a variety of newspapers and magazines. It was in some of his writings we found online that he indicated he held a special place for the books by John Bellairs and we asked him about that, about Oregon, and more.

What's What: PF Flyers

Labels: house where nobody lived, things - clothing

New-kid-in-school David Keller gets tripped by a bully wearing this brand of sneaker [The House where Nobody Lived; 29].

August #JOHNBELLAIRSMONTH We Must!

Labels: chessmen of doom, fandom

Writer, blogger, vlogger, and one-time Bellairsia interview subject Richard Denney has declared August 2014 as John Bellairs Month. To celebrate he's getting the word out a month early and inviting a host of others to write, blog, vlog, and tweet (and so on) about 1989's The Chessmen of Doom.